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Whose IQ gap?

From
Frode Hegland

James Flynn highlights the importance of culture in achievement (6 September, p 48). This reminded me of a remark by Ed Leahy, my former professor at Syracuse University. When he learned that cave art in France was painted with brushes (not hands or skin or anything else to be expected) he was surprised.

At first he wasn’t sure why he was surprised. Cave people had access to animal hair of course, and bunching it up could not have been the biggest technological leap. They used the same “technology” as Picasso and Monet. But their work is vastly different. The culture was what was important. …